Yesterday I opened a slightly aged bag of Oriental Beauty/東方美人 tea that I was given from my guqin teacher last January in Taiwan. I haven't poured Oriental Beauty tea for awhile and it was a pleasure to open the bag and be greeted by rich, earthy, plum scents of the dark, long leaves. They were beautiful in the tea scoop and I let them sit there for awhile, admiring them. I poured the Oriental Beauty, starting at 95 deg. C, in a glazed Novak kyusu for many rounds. This Oriental Beauty is so balanced with a slightly anise-like finish prefaced by a full, slightly smoky/earthy plum flavor, not overly sweet, and lacking any harsh astringency. As I drank, raindrops splattered the tea room wall from outside and the day's light changed between subtle grey hues within the tearoom in rhythm with the shifting depth of the cloud sky. It was a profound pour and my body warmed from within, allowing an incredible stillness to fill the room and rich waves of chaqi to flow. I felt each soft heartbeat slow and alive throughout my whole body, everywhere at once, and became filled with an overwhelming sense of gratitude as tears came to my eyes. Such a gift! I share this gratitude with you all.

Oddly enough, an all-oolong day today: started with leftover TGY leaves ('imperial' from YS)--a couple of additional infusions from leaves started last night; moved on to a Li Shan from Origin Tea; then an afternoon and early evening with SeaDyke traditional roast TKY; and finishing with more of the Imperial TGY from YS. A tasty day.

Enjoying some Shui Xian (horse head rock tea) from Five Star Teas that Andrzej including in a teaware order a while back. It's wonderfully warm and rich with just an edge of astringency; very comforting for this snowy day and sleety evening.

Looks great Tim! When you brew for six days, how do you store the leaves in between sessions? In pot with lid on in room temperature? I thought I was stretching it with my 3 days of a 99 Kunming Pu, happy to see that was not the case!

bliss wrote:Looks great Tim! When you brew for six days, how do you store the leaves in between sessions? In pot with lid on in room temperature? I thought I was stretching it with my 3 days of a 99 Kunming Pu, happy to see that was not the case!

bliss wrote:Looks great Tim! When you brew for six days, how do you store the leaves in between sessions? In pot with lid on in room temperature? I thought I was stretching it with my 3 days of a 99 Kunming Pu, happy to see that was not the case!

In a gaiwan or yixing filled with boiling water.

Interesting, I would have thought that leaving the leaves in boiling water would kill them and there would be no more subsequent brews to be had. I'll have to give it a go. Do you use the cold tea that's been steeping for a day for anything?

bliss wrote:Looks great Tim! When you brew for six days, how do you store the leaves in between sessions? In pot with lid on in room temperature? I thought I was stretching it with my 3 days of a 99 Kunming Pu, happy to see that was not the case!

In a gaiwan or yixing filled with boiling water.

Interesting, I would have thought that leaving the leaves in boiling water would kill them and there would be no more subsequent brews to be had. I'll have to give it a go. Do you use the cold tea that's been steeping for a day for anything?

In some situations like this, I will leave hot water over leaves for some longer-than-optimal brewing time, and when I return to that pot/leaves, pour it out into a larger cup, and do a 'flash rinse' with boiling water over the cooled leaves, and add that to the long/cooled brew. The combination will be warm enough to bring out the flavors better than the cool brew alone, and the fresh hot tea dilutes the cool long-brewed, and the combination may be brilliant.

Enjoying a cuppa 2013 Spring Zhang Shu Hu Alishan from Origin, where I'd forgotten I put hot water in the pot, and did exactly this--diluted with a fresh pot of flash-brewed hot tea. Lovely forgiving tea.